Project 49 - To equip a library at the Youth Center of Mahagi, in the DR of Congo.

Project 49 - To equip a library at the Youth Center of Mahagi, in the DR of Congo.

The context of Mahagi is that of an extreme poverty. Intellectual formation among the youths is really faced with difficulties. We have 1 university, 4 tertiary institutions and 16 secondary schools.

We have schools, institutions and a Catholic university for intellectual formation but without any good library. This has a lot of consequences among the youths and students:

1. The inability of teachers to find back-ups for their courses.

2. Many teachers teach the sane materials for years and years without any updates due to lack of books.

3. Books are recommended in schools and institutions but students cannot afford to buy them because of lack of financial support and poverty.

4. Students who finish their studies and have to write a thesis at the end of their studies do not finish or they pay people to write for them about 300 km from Mahagi where you can find a good library at the capital.

5. The spirit of research and scientific studies is really lost because there are no books to read.

6. We have lost the culture of reading in Mahagi due to the fact that there are no books or they are very expensive.

7. Even professors don’t know how to use the libraries for research because they are not used to visiting libraries.

8. We have students who are really good, who want to further their studies but complaining of libraries and lack of books.

Taking into consideration the poverty of this area, after considering the fact that we need to contribute as M.Afr. to the intellectual, spiritual and sociocultural formation of these youths, the Missionaries of Africa in partnership with the Local church of Mahagi catholic diocese have opened a youth centre built with the help of Manos Unidas in Spain. In this youth center there is a new and only library of Mahagi to foster intellectual formation and facilitate scientific research and readings in schools and among youths. We have even started some study groups to help redeem the spirit of reading among youths. But how can we foster the culture of reading without books and other intellectual materials?

However, we are still faced with challenges of buying books for our library. We have already 5000 books for secondary and university of Mahagi but many of them are old theological and spiritual books left by our missionaries. Today profs, student researchers give us lists of recommended books to buy, but we are limited. We don’t have the financial support we need to buy these books. This is why we want to apply for financial help from you to equip our library with school books.

This is our first target. The second will be information technology (Making scientific researches through the use of technology (computers).

We thank you for your contribution in fostering the intellectual formation of the Youth of Mahagi.